Posts by mentalclarity

5

Our new yearly "regional convention"

by stuckinarut2 in

jw
friends

so unstuck and myself have decided to attend a different kind of yearly convention!.

it should be fun!.

just think, anything that helps us using our "powers of reason" (romans 12:1) is approved by the bible isn't it??

just though i'd start a thread devoted to languages, dialects/sociolects and accents, with the idea being that posters can comment on any language, or dialect or accent of any language, on this thread.. any phrases, expressions or idioms that you find interesting are also welcome.

first, the subject of english accents came up on another thread.. the british isles have many different types of accent (although many of the dialects may be dying out), and if i start to take a closer look, i can't help but see 'patterns' .... in received pronunciation of standard english, the letter r is pronounced initially, between vowels, and after consonants, e.g.

red, arrow, break.

mentalclarity

In the US there are regional and social English variations - it's pretty fascinating.

A lot of the regional variations came about because of the immigrants who colonized a specific area and spoke Dutch/German/French/etc.

If you're interested in sociolinguistics/ english variation you should read William Labov's studies. He is the pioneer of English variation studies in the US.

70

What made you stay "in" even when you knew it wasn't the "truth"?

by mentalclarity in

so i've been thinking a lot about why i stayed a jw for so long even though i had always had doubts about the doctrines.

i was born into the religion, left and came back as an adult for another decade.

some of the things that come to mind (besides the threat of shunning-and this isn't to minimize that very real threat) was:.

mentalclarity

@Ding - all good points. Especially about it being Satan try to mislead you. It's like a weird jedi-mind trick.

@tepidpoultry Agreed. Placing the blame on yourself for not researching enough. My family still thinks I never studied enough to "convince" myself of the "truth" and have it reach my heart.

70

What made you stay "in" even when you knew it wasn't the "truth"?

by mentalclarity in

so i've been thinking a lot about why i stayed a jw for so long even though i had always had doubts about the doctrines.

i was born into the religion, left and came back as an adult for another decade.

some of the things that come to mind (besides the threat of shunning-and this isn't to minimize that very real threat) was:.

mentalclarity

There are all circles of people- it's more about finding the ones that you click with. I know young people like the ones described but I also know of some great people who are involved in helping their communities, studying, taking care of their families and genuinely nice. Just keep looking if you haven't found your "people" yet.

34

BBC News "The ex-Jehovah's Witnesses shunned by their families"

by snare&racket in

jw
friends

bbc news website has this linked on front page.. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-40704990.

mentalclarity

I read the article and lamented they weren't more accurate on the reasons for disfellowshipping. However....great to put this whole shunning thing out there for non-jw's to see so that when JW's come around claiming how wonderful their community is - people can push back and say...hey, don't you shun members (even your own family) if they leave????

The general public are probably not aware that JW's do this and it's not like JW's knocking on doors are informing the public- so even if the article is flawed, I think it's a great! As another poster said..who cares about the JW's who dismiss the article- I don't feel like it's for them and we all know when a JW is presented with negative info about the org they go into cognitive dissonance.

46

10 years on.....

by snare&racket in

jw
friends

i was a window cleaner, i was at the time unemployed, homeless.

i had no education to be proud of (high school one a two b's rest c's) i was a jehovahs witness.

i had been a pioneer.

mentalclarity

Love these experiences! Thanks for posting it!

50

Jehovah's people are not happy people

by Phoebe in

jw
friends

i finally stopped attending the meetings about 4 months go.

i won't be going back - ever.. but i've decided the best reply to the watchtower is to be happy and i do try to be happy every day even thought i wasted my entire life on this religion.

i cherish every day, practice mindfulness and do my best to be content with the life i have.. it is only now that i see that most jws i know are deeply unhappy people.

mentalclarity

This was one of the things that woke me up. I kept on hearing how happy everyone was to be in the organization but when I looked around in my congregation all I saw was a bunch of depressed, neurotic people. Some reasons:

You're always being watched and judged- you're never doing enough
You're purposefully looking at all the bad things to prove we're living in the last days. Negative mindset
You're told to endure and pray in difficult situations (bad relationships/bad job situation/etc) so you're probably putting up with alot of stuff you could actually be doing something about
You are suppressing constantly anything that you see that is not in line with the JW narrative. For example when you see an elder who is a crazy dictator yet is supposed to be shepherding the flock with love.

That all takes its toll on a person's psyche.

26

What happened in 1995?

by pale.emperor in

i was born in 1984 so was only 9yo in 1995. i read on various posts on here and on other websites about false expectations about 1975 and 1995. i'm aware of the 1975 failure but what was said in 1995?.

mentalclarity

So as a "born-in" I'd always heard that "this generation" will not pass without seeing the end, so we figured even someone who was born in 1914 itself was getting pretty old and "the end" was super super close- ( I mean what's the average lifespan of a person, right?) Then this article comes out. It was slipped in so subtly that i really didn't even realize this huge change until people were talking about it afterwards. It's so ridiculous.....

13

A Poll Regarding Shunning

by pale.emperor in

i've created a poll here: https://goo.gl/7xburo.

i'd be interested in seeing the results.. .

#qp_main1119848 .qp_btna:hover input {background:#00355f!important} #qp_all1119848 {max-width:815px; margin:0 auto;}if watchtower scrapped the shunning policy due to "new light" and your family suddenly agreed to speak to you again would you accept them back?.

mentalclarity

I voted yes. My family is following rules - they are too indoctrinated to know any better.

I've always wanted a relationship with them - I don't see it as condoning their behavior to have a relationship with them if the WT rules change. I would welcome them with open arms- their not having a relationship with me has always been about them- not me.

Why give them a taste of their own medicine? We aren't "in" anymore and we know better. IMHO. It's not tit for tat.

12

Worse than the maggots apparently...

by NoviceLocs14 in

so after a couple of years, i've finally re-established contact with a close relative (not revealing too much for privacy reasons).

it turns out that he is dfd (for the typical jw reasons, of course).

we caught up about a lot of things, including family.

mentalclarity

Yeah I've had that happen to me too. My ex and I are both out for many years but many active witnesses are still in contact with him because they figured he left because he was morally "weak". In other words, he still believes, but he can't live up to the standards,

I, on the other hand, am not considered morally weak - but I'm considered the WORST because I don't believe it's the "truth". I've gotten emails about how horrible I am and the cold shoulder from almost all my old jw friends and a few of my family.

We are more of a threat obviously to their bubble. Any criticism of the organization puts the blame on them. Moral weakness places the blame on you.